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Contests

Tell Us How To Pass The Time On A Train To Win A Trip To Longhu Mountain

Friday

Aug

01

By:David A.Howard

Picturesque, serene, and all words of the like come to mind when you think about Jiangxi’s absolutely breathtaking Longhu Mountain. This month’s contest prize, sponsored by Shanghai Connector, is a 2 day getaway which includes 2 soft sleeper train tickets, spa tickets, hotel stay, entrance to all the touristy stuff, meals and even insurance (in case you fall off a cliff or two). Send us your suggestion for how to pass the time on a long train haul for your chance to win the whole kit and caboodle. Shanghailanders, send your creative answers by commenting below on this post, and we’ll pick a winner on September 1st. Beijing and Suzhouren can also win this prize but they must provide their own travel to Shanghai or they can opt for 1,000 rmb in Sherpa’s cash. Learn more about Shanghai Connector at (http://www.shconnector.com/en/) and Mount Longhu here (http://www.asiavtour.com/China_Jiangxi_Nanchang_Mountain%20Longhu%20Scenic%20Area_Introduction_a737.html)  Have fun with it!

 

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26 Comments

  1. Chug some of your favorite tea or juice spiked with a cheap bottle of Soju that you mixed pre train ride.

    You can start off people watching and deciding which food item each person on the train most closely resembles. For example; that guy is definitely a soggy day old xiao long bao.

    After the Soju kicks in start talking to the other passengers and see if you can get anyone to give you a massage.

    Be the crazy laowai doing some pushups in the aisle.

    Try to get others to join you in singing Kum bay ya.

    Then when the booze wears off kick back and snooze

  2. I’ve done 40+ hour train rides on several occasions and the best way to bide your time, depending on your mood, is either one of the following:

    Bring a box of pizza, some munchies and bottle of wine and get right into a TV series, ( The Wire season 2, awesome awesome, awesome! is one I binge watched from Kunming to Shanghai via Guangzhou) or…

    …or bring two decks of cards, some foreign ciggies and an economy sized bottle of ergoutou to break the ice with “la rasa” and get your drink on while playing “liang fu tou” or “5,10,K” or whatever the slightly different version of basically the same game that everyone plays is called in your China hometown.

    Those 40 hour train rides go by a lot faster than you might think and I’ll be damned if some aren’t the most memorable part of the trip!

  3. Bringing cards and drinks to play with fellow cart passengers. Or try to fly a kite outside the window. Play gangnam style and have the whole train join in until it derails.

  4. We all have bestsellers embedded deep within us. A long train ride is a wonderful way to start writing or revising the stories we were destined to share with the world. Moreover, with today’s technology, writing no longer has to be ink to paper, stressed eyes and an exhausted neck. Recording masterpieces is a way to recap how the characters, climax and the plot should be viewed and received. Also, recordings make editing rapid. Thus, there will be an earlier release date for an opportunity to build a significant platform to reach masses.

  5. Having done long distance train travel in India many times, I know that boredom can grip you real fast. Sometimes right after the train starts moving, even though you don’t want to get bored!

    Some of the best tips on dealing with a train haul come down to good company, good music, a great book and a laptop or iPad loaded with your favorite TV series and a couple of movies that you’ve been procrastinating on watching. A combination of any of these or all and you are more than set to go. Oh and don’t forget to have your camera so you don’t miss out on any magnificent views that pass you by. China’s scenery can be monotonous on train routes but sometimes it can surprise you for sure!

    If alcohol consumption is allowed in public transportation, then even better! Carry that cheap bottle of wine (you don’t want to regret any spillage!) and have a really fun time. Card games can hold your interest only for so long… 🙂

    Also, crucial to catch up on your sleep so that you arrive at your destination fresh and raring to go! So there – simple ways to make the most of train travel (which I prefer over bus or planes).

  6. Tune into the positive mode.
    Set expectations for yourself – what’s considered a joy ride for oneself and get the tricks out from your sleeve;)

    Engage fellow commuters and share…
    – snacks/munchies
    – beers, wines, teas and whatever beverages
    – travel size board games like snakes & ladders
    – deck of cards
    – do an interview on board as part of the ‘documentary’ for this exciting journey to Longhu Mountain

    Something to do solo or with your partner…
    – music (iPod, iPad, laptop)
    – DVDs (perfect to catch up those drama series one misses during the hectic work week)
    – one or two good reading material
    – Start drafting the programme for the Longhu Mt trip and create guessing games/quizzes for this trip. Like: why is it called Longhu mountain? How many temples are there? What would we eat for the first meal there? N etc. It could be a mixture of knowledgeable and silly quizzes 🙂

  8. Reading or watching series is way too absurd, and you probably do so in the office. So an obvious answer is to build your own train model layout in your cabin. Just make sure your travel partner or couple takes the opposite bed in the cabin, build the tracks between the beds and have fun.

    This will not only help to pass the time, hours to build the track bridges, but will help to connect those close, but yet too far away, beds. You can use the train to send one way or another snacks, useless objects or even to exchange cards in any card game you may try to play during the travel.

    It makes completely sense once you think about it. They sell train models in most of main train stations I have been so far, if it is large enough. They are just helping you to fulfill your ideas to spend your travel time.

  9. Invent a game, a la Calvinball! Recommended equipment: cards, snacks, music, and booze.

    Some rules that my friends and I perfected on a 36 hard-seat train ride from Shanghai to Kunming:
    1. Play the card game “asshole” or “up the river, down the river” or “kings”, pick a stranger to be your drinking buddy – as your raucous festivities will likely draw a crowd – when you drink, they drink, and visa versa.
    2. Losers must complete dares such as: a) find a dance partner for the next song that comes on shuffle, run outside at the next stop of the train and find a souvenir, scare someone coming out of the bathroom, eat food that everyone else selects from the snack carts, find a snoring individual and snore loudly enough to wake up that individual, or just take shots.
    3. Set up empty bottles and cans, and utilize a ball or ball-shaped object to create a makeshift bowling alley outside of your cabin/seats. For Losers, refer to Rule #2.
    4. Flip, Sip, or Strip – flip a coin, if you call it correctly, pass it to your right. If you call it incorrectly, pass it to your left and take a shot OR remove one article of clothing (more appropriate for soft sleeper rooms and co-ed travel groups).
    5. Play Quarters, or in this case 1 Yuans, on your fold out table. For Losers, refer to Rule #2.
    6. Murder on the Orient Express: Train-theme game of “assassin”.
    7. Everyone take an Ambien and whoever is the last one still awake gets to draw something on the losers – we play “no faces” but that rule is flexible.

    And remember: The only permanent rule in Calvinball is that you can never play it the same way twice!

  10. I have a pretty foolproof way for ensuring that every train journey I take will go as smoothly as possible. FIrst off, I pack as many things as possible into a giant sack. Even if I’m just traveling for 20 minutes, I have to carry everything that I could possibly need. I find that the best place to store this is right in the middle of the isle, where the only people who it will obstruct are all the other passengers.

    Obviously a trip wouldn’t be a trip without my crying baby, so I pack that as well, I then let it soothe the rest of the passengers to sleep while I neglect it totally, and instead nurture my bottle of baijiu which comes served in a sports bottle which I pull open with my teeth.

    Oh I didn’t mention before! I only buy standing tickets, but I have a sneaky trick where I find the most peaceful looking spot and just park myself on the end of the bed, where I fart and play card games, which involve moving around as many small coins as possible.

    Finally, I wait for anyone else to make even a tiny noise so I can yell at them to go to sleep, lest they wake my baby.

    After all these steps, the 45 hours will have flew by, and I am nice and refreshed, ready to trample past as many people as I can in a bid to get out of the door first. I used to forget my baby every time, but the train people don’t let me do that anymore.

  11. Try a game of Scrabble, using only words in pinyin- a great brain game and master a new language at the same time!

  12. You can indulge yourself in activities of your preference like doing crossword puzzles, Sudoku. Making origami crafts with waste papers and throwing out of the window.You can observe the things and people around you and do some sketching if you are interested.Solve Rubik’s cube while travelling! Rubik’s cube is also a good time pass in a journey. If your mobile service is available then you can text your friends and have a brief chat. If you have a source of internet, you can do some social networking and post updates about your travel. You can keep with you a diary or journal to write about memorable things you encounter in your train trip. You can write about people you meet and things you see from a train window! And who knows, you may even get to publish it one day! You can also take your journey as an inspiration to write a story or an article. Always keep a small book with you to scribble things that pop into your mind when you are travelling in a train. When you read those in later years, you will be amused that you had such thoughts!

  17. A long train ride- wow so many things to do with this time instead of sleeping.

    First you walk around the train to get to know your surroundings.
    I would first start with a game of hide & seek- any where counts but don’t be an ass and hide in the bathroom thats just gross. The best would to sit in an empty seat and pretend you are sleeping- I just feel like i would blend in?!

    Then build a fort BUT you can’t use anything you brought you have to ask others around you for items and maybe lend them an invite as if you didn’t it would just be rude. While in the fort we play truth or dare- this always spins out of control so after a couple of rounds and at least one person streaking down the isle way -we move onto never have i ever- person who has done the most chugs a whole beer.( The beer is warm of course) After a couple of beers the imagination only gets better so we will tell scary stories that make no sense but keep us entertained.

    Beer break & food break- I’ll eat anything at this point- oh sherpa don’t we miss you now!

    We go back to the fort that now looks like a pile of stolen clothes and continue to sit on top of the fort and just get drunk- this is 100% acceptable on a long train ride no matter at what time so another drinking game it is! ….oh wait you wish you could but you have already arrived at the destination.

    BOOM. You had a great time. your a little buzzed & now onto a great vacation!

  18. Do things that you wanted to do but never had time to do them. For example, starting/finishing the book you bought a year ago, scrapbook that you wanted to make ever since you got to China, or learn Chinese. In addition, play Monopoly Deal with your friends or teach the people around you how to play. This is not the board game monopoly. This is a card game called Monopoly Deal. Or make predictions of what will happen on the trip and see how many of those come true.

  19. Walk into every compartment on the train that has a single person in it, and hint at a whacking someone in each other’s lives a la Strangers On A Train, but suggest other people on the train as their target.

    This should keep thinks pretty peppy all the way to Longhu.

  20. i like to people watch, so during an 18-hour train ride to xian, i walked from one end of the train to another– a different kind of “people watching”. you saw everything from mega PDA kids, adorable babies, husband-and-wife battles, chainsmoking grandpa’s, mahjong tournaments.

    so that’s my suggestion on a looooooong train ride– walk from one end of the train to another, and pretend you’re in a “china living museum”! each trip brings a different kind of crazy!

  21. Hijack the train ?
    or more realistic….
    1. buy soundproof headphones…dr, dre beats work perfect even the fake ones.
    2. avoid sleep for as long as possible before the ride.
    3. smoke a J (this step can be skipped)
    4. kickback with movies/music
    5. set an alarm 10-15min prior to arrival.
    6. sleep and hope u dont wake up til the alarm wakes u up.

    ya theres lots of activities that can be done but lets be realistic, this is the most “relaxing” way to spend a trip…i travel alot.

  22. If you are traveling alone, this is a great time to meet new people. You can strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to you, and find out about their personal story and how they wound up on the train next to you. Another fun way to pass the time is to bring a notebook, and walk up and down the train, looking at the different people in each compartment. After you get back to your own compartment, you can come up with absurd or wild ideas on the backstory of each person (e.g. who they are, where they came from, why they are on the train, etc.).

  23. The best way that I pass time on a train is to stay up late the night before, then sleep on the train. I’ll bring my eye mask and inflatable pillow, ignoring all the other people who are looking at me like I’m crazy (maybe I am). Sometimes I”ll even bring my pajamas and change into them just so I’m extra comfy!

  24. 1) Pack a large wool blanket

    2) Find the most attractive girl on the train and sit directly across from her

    3) Cover blanket over lap

    4) Establish eye contact with said girl

    5) Furiously masterbate

  25. When I was much younger, long train rides were the bane of my existence. I ended up just making it through the trip with a book, sleeping, or generally avoiding my parents like most teenagers. Sorry, Mom! 🙁

    Now that I am “grown up” and have a wonderful significant other, long train trips are actually something I look forward to. They give us a great opportunity to catch up and have some time that is just for the two of us. We can hold each other’s hands, talk openly, and not have to worry about some annoying visitor or family member interrupt us. Time flies by in no time 🙂

  26. Congratulations Dano for winning this Longhu Mountain Trip Package! We loved your fun and interesting time-wasters and will definitely be using some of these on our next trip!.
    Thanks to everyone for your creative ideas.

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